INTRODUCTORY

On November 3, 1672, the Canadian fief of Vincennes was granted to François Bissot. On bis death it passed to his son. Jean Baptiste Bissoî, who died at the Indian village of Kiki-on-ga, the site of Fort Wayne, in 1719. From that date there has been found no officiai record of the ownership in Canada until 1749, when it passed by judicial decree to Joseph Roy. It is an interesting coïncidence — for Indiana, a happy coïncidence — that the centennial year of Indiana's statehood should hâve been made more mémorable by the identification of the Sieur de Vincennes, who succeeded Jean Baptiste Bissot, and who founded the first permanent settlement in Indiana, by a descendant of Joseph Roy. Ever since Americans began the study of the early French history of this région, the identity of this Sieur de Vincennes has been almost as mysterious as that of the Man in the Iron Alask, or the author of the Letters of Junius. Judge Law, the first American who undertook any systematic investigation of the history of Vincennes, stated that he signed his name "François Morgan de Vinsenne" ; but Morgan is not a Canadian or French name, and the fief was in the Bissot family until 1749. But a sister of Jean Baptiste Bissot married Séraphin Margane, which is the French name most nearly approaching ''JNIorgan", and it has generally been assumed that a son or grandson of hers must hâve been our Sieur de Vincennes. It has remained for M. Pierre-Georges Roy, an erudite Canadian writer, to unearth the conclusive documentary évidence that our founder was François Bissot, a son of Jean Baptiste Bissot, who was in the French military service at the same time as his f ather ; and that this François Bissot's godfatlier was his uncle François Margane. This clears the mystery, it being évident that François Bissot as-

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sumed his godfather's name, as was often done by the eariy Canadians, to distinguish himself from his father, who signed his name "Bissot de Vinsenne". The same document also estabHshes the fact that the first French post in Indiana was built at Fort Wayne in 1722, and gives us a definite point for the beginning of European settlement within our border s, although this post was not permanent, the post having been destroyed by the Indians in 1747.

Pierre-Georges Roy, to whom Indiana is indebted for this information, was boni at Levis, across the St. Lawrence from Québec, October 23, 1870. He is the son of the Notary Léon Roy and Marguerite de Lavoye, being the twelfth child in a family of fourteen. One of his elder brothers was the distinguished J. Edmond Roy, Président of the Royal Society of Canada, and author of the History of the Seigneury of Lauzon. M. Léon Roy was able to give his family good éducations, and Pierre-Georges graduated in turn from the Collège of Levis, the Seminary of Québec, and the University of Laval. Literary by inclination, his first venture was the establishment, in 1890, of Le Glaneur, a magazine for young people, which was continued for two years. He then entered journalistic work on the Quotidien, at Levis, and the Canadien, at Québec, and established Le Moniteur, at Levis, Li 1894 he was made deputy Clerk of the Court of Appeals at Québec, in which office he remained for twenty years, mcanwhile continuing his historical and literary researches. In 1895 he established Le Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, which has been, and still is, the great arena for Canadian historical discussion, and is the recognized organ of the Société des Etudes Historiques. In addition to editorial work, M. Roy is the author of numerous publications among which, with their dates of issue, are the following:

La Réception de Mgr le Vicomte D'Argenson, 1890; Premier Voyage de Jacques Cartier au Canada, 1890; Oraison

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Funèbre du Comte de Frontenac, 1895 ; Les Troubles de L'Eglise du Canada en 1728, 1897; La Neuvième Législature de Québec, 1897; Guide de Levis, 1898; Bibliographie de la Poésie Franco-Canadienne, 1900; La Famille Taschereau, 1901 ; Notre-Dame de Bonsecours de L'Islet, 1901 ; Sainte-Julie de Somerset, 1901 ; La Dixième Législature de Québec, 1901 ; Sainte-Antoine de Tilly, 1902 ; La Famille, Frémont, 1902 ; La Famille Juchereau Duchesnay, 1903 ; La Famille D'Estimauville de Beaumouchel, 1903 ; La Famille Taché, 1904 ; La Famille Godef roy de Tonnancour, 1904 ; Un Procès Criminel a Québec au 17e Siècle, 1904; Oraison Funèbre de Mgr de Pontbriand, 1905 ; La Famille DTrumberry de Salaberry, 1905 ; La Famille Rocbert de la Morandière, 1905 ; La Famille des Champs de Boishebert, 1906; La Famille Panet, 1906; Oraison Funèbre de Mgr Briand, 1906; Les Noms Géographiques de Québec, 1906; La Famille Renaud D'Avène des Meloizes, 1907; La Famille Aubert de Gaspè, 1907; La Famille Boisseau, 1907; La Famille Adhémar de Lantagnac, 1908; La Famille Jarret de Verchères, 1908; La Famille Mariauchau D'Esgly, 1908; La Famille Céloron de Blainville, 1909; La Famille de Ramezay, 1910; Autour de la Buvette, 1910; Le Grand Menteur, 1911; La Famille Bailly de Messein, 1911; La Famille des Bergères de Rigauville, 1912 ; La Famille Faribault, 1913 ; La Famille Bécard de Grandville, 1914 ; La Famille Viennay-Pachot, 1915; La Famille Foucault, 1915; La Famille Glackemeyer, 1915; La Famille Chavigny de la Chevrotiér, 1,16; La Famille Margane de Lavaltrie, 1917; La Famille Guillimin. 1917; Inventaire D'une Collection de Pièces Judiciaires, Notariales, etc., etc., 2 vols. 1917; La Glaneur, 2 vols. ; Le Moniteur, 2 vols ; Le Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, 23 vols, (1) 1895-1917.

Thèse works are historical with the exception of Autour de la Buvette and Le Grand Menteur, which are tempérance arguments, M. Roy being a stalwart prohibitionist. Among

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the récognitions of his literary work hâve been his élection to the Royal Society of Canada in 1904, the décoration of Officier de L'Instruction Publique from the French Government in 1905, the degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of Laval in 1906, and the appointment of Fédéral Archivist of Québec in 1915. For putting it in touch ^\ith M. Roy, the Indiana Historical Society is indebted to Hon. Merrill Moores, who visited Québec in the summer of 1916, and learned that M. Roy had made a collection of documents concerning the Bissot family. Mr. Moores says of his visit:

"I went to Québec for the purpose of hnding a représentative of the Roy family, who I supposed would be still in possession of the seignory. I went to Buftalo and down by boat to Québec, and was told by a priest on the boat that a lawyer and also a historian, brothers who belonged to the Roy family. which had possessed the seignory, were still living in Levis, across from the city of Québec, the one being named Edmond and the other Georges. I crossed to Levis and made inquiries as to both of thèse gentlemen, and found that the lawyer, who had been a man of prominence, was dead. I then, with some difficulty, located the house of the man I had been told was a collège professor and historian. His house was temporarily vacant, but a neighbor told me that I would find him at his country house to the east of Levis. Being unable to get a cab, I took a trolley car as far as it went and learned from a grocer Vvhere the counlry house was, and started across a tremendous meadow in the direction of the country house. In crossing the meadow I met a gentleman walking toward the city of Levis with a boy and a girl, of about eleven and nine }ears old. I spoke to the gentleman in English and asl'ced to be directed to the résidence of Mr. Roy. He told me in French that lie was Mr. Roy, and he and I walked back to Levis together He told me that the seignory was several miles to the east

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of where I had met him, and that his country house was only about half a mile east of there, and was on land which had belonged to the seignors, and was on the site of the old family tannery. Returning, he showed me where the bakery of the original Roy had been located. This had long ago disappeared. It seems that Bissot was the principal tanner and Roy the principal baker in early colonial days. I had an invitation from Mr. Roy who took me to his office at 23 Rue St. Louis, Québec (which is a part of the old mansion occupied by the Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria, at the time when he was Governor General of Lower Canada). I had a very delightful visit with Mr. Roy, who, as I say, ofifered to drive me out to the old fîef. But Congress was in session and I had to go back and could not get out. I hâve a promise from him, however, to show me the fîef on my next -s'isit to Québec. It is between. 600 and 700 acres, and is quadrangular in shape, being perhaps a quarter of a mile on the river and running back a considérable distance to the south of the river. It is directly south of the Isle d' Orléans. It is in the county of Bellechasse. The village of Beaumont is, I think, on the fief. The old fief now belongs to a Québec lawyer named Grahame. I think his name is Stuart Grahame. Mr. Roy bas written a great deal of Canadian history, particularly with regard to old Canadian families and early trials. He is not a lawyer, but is a professor in Laval University, and is Public Archivist of the Province. His cousin, Alfred Valère Roy, is the Libéral member of the Législative Assembly for Québec for the constituency of Levis ; and another relative is Camille Roy, secretary of Laval University. Another is Paul Eugène Roy, auxiliary bishop of Québec. Still another, Phillippe, is Commissioner of Canada, in France, and has been and possibly still is a Senator in the Canadian Senate."

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The Society is indebted to Mrs. Charles W. Moores for the translation of M, Roy's documents, which were in French ; and also to Miss Belle Noble Dean, for typewriting the translation.

The translations follow.

J. P. DUNN, Secretary, Ind. Hist. Soc.